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[godavego]

[edit] Changed title

I'm starting to run out of room on my HTPC so I'm thinking of getting a large NAS drive with RAID (ReadyNAS or Buffalo Terastation Pro).  With all the extra room, I thought about ripping all my DVDs to the NAS while I was at it.  My final setup will be:

HTPC w/MC 11.1 supporting two audio zones
Library Server for the three other PCs
UPnP server for the two Roku Soundbridges
10/100 network (all wired except for the Rokus and two laptops)
Only TheaterView used on the HTPC - everything controlled via IR and Girder (no keyboard or mouse)

This bring up two questions:

1. Anyone running in a similar configuration?  I don't expect that MC will care whether the files are on a NAS, but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask before I buy.

2. Once I rip my DVDs to the NAS, I see that it is possible to import the movies into MC.  However, is there a way to have MC launch TheaterTek with the correct command line so I can use TheaterTek for DVD playback?  Remember, I don't have a keyboard or a mouse so everything is done using an IR remote and TheaterView.  Most people never even know they are dealing with a PC.  It would be great if I could get something similar to the custom home page buttons available in TheaterView.  This is how I launch TT when I play a DVD disk.  Basically, I want to do the same thing for each ripped DVD (launch EXE with command specific to the selected ripped DVD).  With this I might be able to get close to http://www.kaleidescape.com/ for a lot less money.

I'm guessing I could do something like this with the MC DVD player, but I generally find it lacking, and I prefer the control I get with TheaterTek (ffdshow, etc.).

[dmm]

I am not doing DVD files over NAS.  But am doing music and divx files over a net.  I do find that when using a web browser and controlling my music thru MC's remote web server interface, I get occasional MC crashes.  I believe this to be caused by the complicated setup I am using below:

Three machines are involved on a gigabit ethernet LAN (I also edit and stream HDTV .ts files over this net). 

1.  A Windows XP machine acting as a file server.  It does not have MC installed on it.  Merely its harddisks are shared on the LAN.  My MP3, dts, divx, etc files are here.

2.  Another windows XP machine with MC 11.1 installed.  It has a drive letter created pointing at the shared drives on the file server #1 above with the media files.  This machine has the audio card and SPDIF out connected to my home theater audio systems.

3.  The last windows XP machine with a web browser.  I point the web browser at the MC 11.1 machine to control it and play music.  When I select the .dts tracks from the browser, the MC 11.1 application crashes on the machine 2 above.

Why do I do all this?  The file server (#1) is headless (no display), is large and loud with fans and lots of hard disks.  It is not located in the same room where my theater is.  The machine with MC11.1 installed (#2) is my hometheater PC.  It is normally used as a headless machine since it is connected to a projector that is usally turned off unless I am watching a movie.  Machine #3 is my general purpose internet surfing machine that is always turned on and available for use.

[godavego]

Controlling MC with a web browser?  I didn't know you could do that!  Right now, if I need to do something with MC on my HTPC, I use theater view.  Sometimes I connect with VNC, but a web browser would be a whole lot easier.

Do you think your crashes are due to the network drive or the browser control?  My current setup is very stable.  I will go months without reboots.  In fact, I can't remember the last time I had a crash on that machine.

[Qythyx]

I have a ReadyNAS (the X6) and have some DVDs ripped to it. I don't have the rest of your complicated setup, though. So for I haven't had any problems at all.

I actually store all my media on my NAS: about 6000 music tracks, about 6000 pictures, about 200 video files, and a few dozen DVDs. The only time I ever have any complaints with this setup at all is when I want to resync MC's library and do a media import, since this takes a little while compared to running from a local disk, although with that many files it'll take a little no matter what.

[gbdesai]

I have a similar setup with several RAID5 configured NAS devices (Infrant, custom made, etc.).  I keep all my movies on it and use a Windows Media Center PC with the excellent "My Movies" add-on to play them (www.mymovies.name).  I rip them as .ISO images (only the movie part I skip the extras usually).  I have DaemonTools installed on the Windows MC PC and "My Movies" autoloads the appropriate DVD image when I select the movie from the visual menu the application provides.

I have a Gigabit connection between the PC and the NAS, but I have successfully played a DVD over my 802.11g network connection to my laptop (directly mounted a DVD off a network share).  To elimate ocassional skipping I also use the excellent DVDIdle Pro which caches to memory on the fly so I rarely have a hicupp.  There are many other added benefits of DVDIdle Pro that you should explore (wouldn't be appropriate to evangelize some of those in this forum).

Neat thing with this setup is that you can actually put the library information for "My Movies" on a network share (maybe on the same drive as the movies) and several Windows MC PCs can access it simultaneously all over the home, giving you instant on demand DVD access anywhere.

Not sure about how to implement with JRiver MC, but that's how I get it to work very well.

[godavego]

Is is possible to attach a command line to a media item instead of a filename?  That would let me launch TheaterTek.

[godavego]

Anybody?

I did a bunch more looking, and it looks like I can import VOBs into MC 11.1.  However, I didn't find anything related to my original question.  Here is what I want to do:

1. Rip my movie to D:\Movies\MovieTitle.  In the MovieTitle directory is the VIDEO_TS directory for the DVD.

2. Import the VOB into MC 11.1.

3. Add the cover art picture to the imported reference.

4. When play is selected from theater view, execute the following command line:

          C:\Bin\PlayMovie D:\Movies\MovieTitle

PlayMovie.bat is a batch file that will have the full command line necessary to launch TheaterTek to play my ripped movie.

Can I do this, or do I need to get MainLobby, Meedeo, etc?  As I said in a an earlier post, I much prefer the DVD playback of TheaterTek.  The picture is much better, and it is easier to control with a remote.

I don't mind the manual setup required to make this work since I don't buy DVDs at near the rate of CDs.  Taking a few minutes to set this up is not a problem.

Note, it would be great to have this information in one place.  There must be dozens of posts that all reference the "magic" post that has the right way to import VOBs into MC11.1.  I never found the "magic" one, only bits and pieces.

BTW, the NAS is on its way, and I removed the web remote server.  The web UI had no WAF, and I wanted to be able to control the second audio zone.

[godavego]

Does this mean it can't be done, or is it too obvious? 

[JohnT]

Note, it would be great to have this information in one place.  There must be dozens of posts that all reference the "magic" post that has the right way to import VOBs into MC11.1.  I never found the "magic" one, only bits and pieces.

As far as importing into MC, you shouldn't need any magic, just select Tools/Import media.. and then add the folder "d:\movies" and click Start Search.

[godavego]

Thanks! I was able to import.  Now, I can find a way to use TheaterTek to play them.  A plug-in maybe that will launch an executable and provide the filename as input?  It's been a while since I've coded, but that looks to be my only option right now.

...or make the MC player make me forget about TheaterTek.

[glynor]

Right click on a file --> Send to --> External --> Add/Edit Programs.

I'm sure you'll figure it out.  Once you send one file to the external application, because MC remembers your last n commands in the Right-Click menu, it will be there right at the top for you to use until you close MC (or use up the n commands).

[godavego]

I found that, but only problem there is I have to type in the full command line every time.  That won't fly with the rest of the family.  The utlimate would be to associate a specific command line with every imported movie.  Then, from TheaterView, all my wife has to do is select the movie and press play.

[added later]
Also, my HTPC does not normally have a keyboard and mouse connected so this is not an option.  I need a command line associated with each DVD VIDEO_TS directory.